Russia Ministry of Energy: The Ministry of Energy has completed the preparation of a draft law aimed at implementing a target model of electricity demand management

The draft federal law is aimed at creating a legal basis for the operation of aggregators in the wholesale electricity and capacity market.

In 2019, a pilot project was launched in Russia to work with demand management aggregators. These are specialized companies that allow any electricity consumer to earn money by managing the level of their consumption.

Aggregators bring together consumer groups and manage their aggregate electricity demand. By reducing the consumption of their groups at certain times (known a day in advance), aggregators and consumers receive payments for this from the energy market. A positive effect for the power system from the aggregators is to reduce the load during the hours when it is highest and consumption is at its maximum peaks.

The bill is the next step in the development of a demand management mechanism that has been successfully tested in a pilot project.

It is planned to introduce a new type of services to manage changes in the electricity consumption regime and to establish the obligation to purchase such services by participants in the wholesale market. In addition, the government is empowered to select the demand management aggregators.

The draft federal law is aimed at approval by the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, the Ministry of Construction of Russia and the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia.